Whining and Dining

I cook, I complain, and I eat. I believe that any ingredient can be substituted and that measurements are only suggestions. (Yes, I bake without measuring too.) This is my food; I hope you enjoy it. —Liz

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Leftover Lunches: Roasted Cauliflower and Potatoes with Collards in Curried Red Lentil Sauce

I love cooking huge batches of stews and casseroles that I can bring to work for lunch. I especially love it when it makes my coworkers jealous, as this one seemed to. Fellow cube denizens, this one's for you.*

Yeah, that's the whole story for this post. And yes, that's my desk.

recipe after the jump

Roasted Cauliflower and Potatoes with Collards in Curried Red Lentil Sauce

Ingredients

1 cup red lentils

1 head cauliflower, cut into bite size pieces

3-4 red potatoes, chopped into bite size cubes

3 collard leaves, chiffonaded**

Olive oil

Salt

Pepper

Red pepper flakes

Cumin

Hot curry powder

Asafetida

Smoked paprika

Vegetable stock

Method

Preheat oven to 350.

Put potatoes in a bowl, add a glug or two of olive oil, a pinch of salt, a bunch of freshly ground black pepper, and a pinch of red pepper flakes. Toss until evenly coated, adding more olive oil if necessary. Spread over half of a baking sheet.

Do the same thing with the cauliflower.

Put the potatoes and cauliflower in the oven. Check after twenty minutes for fork-tenderness, it'll probably take closer to forty minutes. Maybe sixty. If one side is done before the other, gingerly pick it off the tray. Burn yourself. Put the tray back in the oven.

Meanwhile, put the red lentils in a pot with two cups of water, and bring to a boil. Turn down to a simmer, and cook until very tender–about twenty minutes. Keep an eye on them and add a quarter cup of water at a time if they dry out.

Let the lentils cool, and then puree them.

Put some olive oil in a large pot or sauce pan and a pinch of each of the spices. Yes, add red pepper flakes to this too. Fry the spices for a minute or so, then add the collards and stir to coat.

Pour lentil puree in, and thin with vegetable stock until it's a saucy consistency. Taste for seasoning—you'll probably need to add salt, maybe more of everything.

Stir in the cauliflower and potatoes, and add more vegetable stock if the sauce seems to thick again.

Serve with a big dollop of greek yogurt. Bask in your coworkers' envy.

*I try really hard not to eat stinky food in cubeland. Even though this is a curry, it will be very mild if you only use a pinch of the curry powder. If you use really good vegetable stock and roast your vegetables to golden deliciousness, you won't need much anyway.

**If you have a food processor with a slicing blade, use that, and vow to never chiffonade by hand again. Then wash food processor and remember why you never use it.

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Weekday Dinners: Spaghetti with Smashed Chickpea Sauce

POSTED BY LIZ

This weekend, I had a vision: warm smashed chickpeas dripping with olive oil, bright with lemon and parsley, and pungent with garlic. I didn't know what I wanted to do with the sauce/salad/spread running through my mind; I just knew that I wanted it. So I made it. At some point my roommate walked through the kitchen. "That smells delicious," he said. I pointed at the garlic sauteing on the stove. "Ah, that explains it. What are you making?" I didn't answer because I still didn't know. I finished mixing everything together and stuck it in the fridge—after thoroughly checking the seasoning, of course.*

Then, it snowed. It was the first snow of the season, and to me that calls for something warm and comforting, like a big bowl of pasta. I'm always happy to just eat spaghetti tossed with (lots of) butter and parmesan, but this time I wanted something else in it too. Like protein. So I got out my spaghetti and butter and parmesan...and my chickpeas. Which are now a sauce, because that's what happens when you put things on pasta. They become a sauce.

Recipe after the jump

Smashed Chickpea Sauce/Salad/Spread

Ingredients

1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1 bunch parsley, chopped

3 cloves garlic, pressed

Olive oil

1 lemon

Balsamic vinegar

Red pepper flakes

Cayenne

Smoked paprika

Salt

Pepper

Method

Put the chickpeas in a large mixing bowl, and roughly mash. (I used a potato masher, a fork would probably work too.)

Mix in the parsley, and set aside.

Saute the garlic in a lot of olive oil on low heat for about 5 minutes. You want to use a lot more olive oil than seems necessary for just the garlic because you do need a lot of oil for the chickpeas, and now it's infused with garlicky goodness.

Pour the garlic and olive oil onto the chickpea and parsley mixture. Add the juice of one lemon and a glug of balsamic vinegar. Throw in a pinch each of red pepper flakes, cayenne, smoked paprika, and salt. Grind a whole bunch of black pepper on top, and stir everything together.

Adjust the seasoning to your tastes, and eat with a spoon. Or with spaghetti. Or in a sandwich. Or whatever else you can think of.

*I ate half of it out of the mixing bowl with a spoon—as I said, it can be served as a salad.

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Weekend Feast: Fennel Mini Quiche, Lentil Soup, Potato Tikka, and Cucumber Tomato Salad

POSTED BY LIZ

Tonight's meal came from two disparate needs: I wanted to use my new mini muffin pan (thanks Fox and Josephine!) and Scotty wanted to use his new curry powders. I decided to make mini quiches, and he decided to make potato tikka. I had fennel from our CSA, so my dish quickly came together from a 'fennel quiche' google search. I caramelized the fennel with some leftover red onion and added manchego cheese for salty savoryness and bitter kale to balance out the sweetness.

Photo by Jordan Levie

Scotty settled on a potato tikka that he came up with himself (it was delicious!) which used garam masala, tandoori spice, and hot curry. I felt that we needed something to marry our two dishes together as well as some more protein, so I made a Turkish lentil soup. I also wanted to have some fresh vegetables which could add a cooling element, and thus cucumber tomato salad dressed with sour cream was born.

Photo by Jordan Levie

We also had some brandy margaritas to wash everything down because . . . why not? And, just believe me, this whole meal was amazing.

Photo by Jordan Levie

Recipes after the jump

Fennel Mini Quiche (adapted from Lunch at Sixpoint)

Ingredients

Two tiny fennel bulbs, thinly sliced

1/4 red onion, thinly sliced

2 tbsp butter

6 small leaves lacinato kale (probably 3 normal kale leaves), chiffonaded

6 eggs

1 cup milk

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 c manchego cheese, grated

Method

Preheat oven to 375

Saute fennel and onion in butter on low heat until caramelized (around 15 minutes)

Scrape fennel and onion into a bowl

Rinse kale with water and put in saute pan without drying; wilt kale in water for a minute

Put kale in fennel/onion bowl and mix together

Beat eggs into milk and season with salt and pepper

Spoon fennel/onion/kale mixture into mini muffin pan cups

Sprinkle manchego into muffin cups

Pour egg/milk mixture into muffin cups until just barely full

Bake for 20 minutes or until tops are browned and a toothpick comes clean, and then let cool for about 10 minutes

Eat!

Lentil Soup (from ask.metafilter)

Ingredients

3 tbsp butter, divided

1 yellow medium onion, diced

1 cup red lentils

6 cups vegetable stock

1 tbsp flour

1 egg yolk

1 cup milk

juice of one lime

salt and pepper to taste

Method

Saute onion in 2 tbsp butter in heavy soup pot until soft (about 10 minutes)

Add red lentils and stock; bring to a boil

Simmer until lentils are soft (about 20 minutes)

Puree soup

In a saute pan, make a roux by melting the butter and stirring the flour into it for a minute

Add a few ladlefuls of soup to the roux and stir until thickened (about 5 minutes)

Scrape roux/soup back into the soup pot

Beat egg into milk and add to soup; heat until boiling while stirring constantly

Turn off hear, add lime juice, and season with salt and pepper to taste

Eat!

Cucumber and Tomato Sour Cream Salad (Adapted from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian)

Ingredients

3 cucumbers, deseeded and diced

3 tomatoes, diced

2 jalapeños, diced

1/4 cup parsley, minced

5 tbsp sour cream

2 tbsp lime juice

1 tsp garam masala

Method

Put cucumbers in a colander with 2 tbsp salt; let sit 15 minutes and rinse (this will make them extra crunchy)

Mix cucmbers, tomato, jalapeño, and parsley in a large bowl

Mix sour cream, lime juice, and garam masal in a small bowl

Fold sour cream dressing into salad mixture

Eat!

Potato Tikka a la Scotty Peterson

Ingredients

1 large onion

6 small russet potatoes, cut into 2" dice

1 cup yogurt

1 tbsp + 2 tsp garam masala

2 tsp + 1 pinch hot curry

2 plum tomatoes, diced

2 tbsp lime juice

2 small cans of tomato paste (8oz)

1 tbsp olive oil

Method

Preheat oven to 375

Combine diced tomatoes, tomato paste, lime juice, yogurt and 1 tbsp garam masala in a large bowl

Skewer potato and onion chunks, leaving about 1/4 inch of space between them, immerse in marinade and sit 1 hour

Remove skewers from the marinade and sprinkle each skewer with a pinch of hot curry. Bake for 20 minutes or until tender

Heat the marinade slowly over low heat until it just simmers, adding 2 tsp hot curry and 2 tsp garam masala and olive oil, set aside

Plate, sauce and serve.

Notes on the Potato Tikka

This recipe made an Americanized version. The  more traditional version of the dish would need more spices, as well as stewing the cooked potatoes in masala sauce after baking. But, this was my first foray into Indian cuisine.

Brandy Margarita

Ingredients

1 1/2 oz Brandy

1 oz Triple Sec

1/2 oz Lime juice

Method

Mix and pour over ice

Drink and enjoy!

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2 Bean Southwestern Chili with Old-Fashioned Cornbread

POSTED BY LIZ

My wonderful, amazing coworkers gave us a 5 1/2 quart Le Creuset French Oven (in cherry red!). It came a week ago, and I've been eagerly plotting what to, uh, pop its cherry with. The problem, of course, is that it is still way too hot for a beautiful low, slow braise, which is what that pot just calls for. It is finally cool enough, for a low, slow stovetop meal. So, I decided to make chili.

Photo by Scott Peterson

I kept it simple bean-wise and just used black beans and kidney beans for a mix of color and size. Instead of a classic French mirepoix, I used onion, celery, orange bell pepper, and jalapeños as my base, with a can of fire-roasted tomatoes for liquid and depth. Look how pretty how all those vegetables are with the kidney and black beans! Top with sour cream, and soak up the extra broth with some homemade old-fashioned cornbread.

Photo by Scott Peterson

Recipe after the jump

2 Bean Southwestern Chili

Ingredients

2 cups kidney beans (uncooked)

2 cups black beans (uncooked)

2-3 tbsp olive oil

1 large white or yellow onion, diced

1 large bell pepper, diced

3 ribs celery, diced

4 jalapeños, diced

1 28oz can diced fire-roasted tomatoes

2 dried chipotle peppers

4 bay leaves

3-4 tbsp cumin

3-4 tbsp coriander

2-3 tbsp smoked paprika

salt and pepper to taste

Method

Soak the kidney and black beans for 3-6 hours in a large pot

Bring beans to a simmer, and cook for 1-2 hours or until tender

Drain beans and wash pot

Heat oil in pot over medium heat and saute onion, bell pepper, celery, and jalapeños for about 10 minutes

Add tomatoes, chipotles, bay leaves, cumin, coriander, and smoked paprika; bring to a simmer, and reduce for about 10 minutes

Return beans to pot with other ingredients and simmer for about 20 minutes

Season with salt and pepper, garnish with sour cream and cornbread (recipe below), and eat!

Old-Fashioned Cornbread

Honestly, I just use Mark Bittman's recipe. You can find it here.

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Weekend Madness: Cooking for the Week

POSTED BY LIZ

This weekend we made:

Cook's Illustrated Baked Ziti

Apple Spice Mini Muffins (adapted from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian's banana muffin recipe)

Couscous Salad with Peppers, Celery, Red Onion, Feta, Parsley, Olive Oil, Lime Juice, Salt, and Pepper

Rice Salad with Peppers, Celery, Red Onion, Edamame, Basil, Toasted Sesame Oil, Rice Vinegar, Soy Sauce, and Chile Paste

Pasta with Broccoli, Peppers, and Goat Cheese

2 Bean Southwestern Chili with Old-Fashioned Cornbread

Dark Chocolate Truffles with Cinnamon and Chile

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Season Staples: Fresh Salsa

POSTED BY LIZ

I have a confession to make: I hate tomatoes innards. They're slimy, and they make me shiver in a bad way. Every time I see yet another article extolling the purity and beauty of a slice of heirloom tomato with just a sprinkling of sea salt and torn basil I feel guilty—why can't I too appreciate such an elegant dish? I guess I'm a bad foodie though, because still all I feel is revulsion towards those gooey tomato guts. That doesn't mean I don't absolutely adore tomatoes though. Take out the seeds and the slime, just leaving the flesh and the skin, and Mmmm. Yes, please.

So you know what I make with my heirloom CSA tomatoes? Salsa. Fresh, raw salsa, which I spoon onto everything from the rice and beans to asian noodle soup. I am hard-pressed to think of anything that doesn't benefit from the extra brightness and acidity of the tomatoes and lime juice, the heat of the jalapeños and onion, and the, well, cilantro-ness of the cilantro. Including chips, of course.

Recipe after the jump (you may have already seen this in Savory Corn and Pepper Pancakes)

Salsa

Ingredients

4 medium-sized, fresh tomatoes, diced

2 large jalapeños, minced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 white onion, diced

1 handful cilantro, chopped

1-2 glugs fresh lime juice

salt and pepper

Method

Combine ingredients

Taste for seasoning. Eat.

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Weekday Dinners: Kimchi Soup

POSTED BY LIZ

Kimchi soup takes no more than thirty minutes to make. It tastes good. It's good for you. It keeps well so you can make a giant batch, and eat it for lunch too. It only dirties one pot. In short, it's the perfect weekday dinner.

Recipe after the jump

Kimchi Soup

Ingredients

Canola or other neutral frying oil

1 lb tofu, cubed

16 oz jar kimchi

3/4 cup rice

2 handfuls frozen edamame

2-3 tbsp toasted sesame oil

2-3 tbsp soy sauce

2-3 tbsp rice vinegar

Methods

Heat a large, heavy soup pot, and coat bottom with frying oil. Fry tofu for 2-3 minutes on each side or until golden brown.

Add kimchi and 5-6 cups of water. Bring to a boil, and add the rice. Then maintain a simmer for about 10 minutes.

Add edamame and return to simmer for another 5 minutes. Check rice for doneness. Season with sesame oil, soy sauce, and rice vinegar. Eat.

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CSA Adventures: Homemade Kimchi

POSTED BY LIZ

This is our third year of CSA membership. This is our first year using our cabbage. We did attempt stuffed cabbage one time. Adam generously pronounced it worth revisiting. I decided the cabbage was better served moldering in the fridge for several weeks and being thrown away than stuffed into submission again. Until now, that is. The stuffed cabbage may never be tried again. But spicy pickled cabbage with scallions and ginger? Kimchi is the taste of success.

Recipe after the jump

Kimchi

Ingredients

1 head Napa cabbage, cored and cut into 1 inch strips

1/2 cup salt

1 bunch scallions, cut into 1/2 inch pieces

6 cloves garlic, minced

2 inches ginger, grated

3/4 cup Korean chili powder

1/8 cup soy sauce

1/8 cup rice vinegar

3-4 tbsp fermented black bean paste*

Method

Layer the cabbage and salt in a bowl, and let sit for 3-4 hours. 

Mix the remaining ingredients in a large bowl. Rinse the salt off the cabbage, and toss with seasoning mixture.

Put the whole ugly mess in a sealable glass jar, and seal it. Let sit at room temperature for 2-5 days, then move to fridge. (Flavor will get stronger as it ages, and it should last pretty indefinitely in the fridge.)

Eat. (I will happily eat kimchi out of the jar with a fork, but it also makes amazing soup. Look for my kimchi soup recipe tomorrow.)

*Yes, this is a Chinese ingredient, but it is an excellent replacement for fish paste.

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Dinner for Breakfast: Savory Corn and Pepper Pancakes

POSTED BY LIZ

I used to think I didn't like corn. I knew cornbread was good, and polenta was obviously delicious, but fresh corn itself was just . . . not worth all the flossing you had to do afterwards. Clearly, I have changed my mind, because not only did I use all eight (8!) of ears from CSA, but then I sent Adam out to buy more. Here is one of things we used it for: savory corn and pepper pancakes with salsa, sour cream, and black beans. And they were good—fluffy pancake batter binding together pan-roasted corn and jalapeños with a red bell pepper for extra color and sweetness? Topped with homemade salsa that had cilantro fresh-picked from the window sill? You wish you had been there.

Recipes after the jump

Corn and Pepper Pancakes (from Williams-Sonoma Vegetarian)

Ingredients

2 tbsp butter, plus more for frying

3 ears worth of corn kernels

2 eggs

1 1/4 cups flour

1/2 cup cornmeal

1 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp fresh lime juice

1 1/2 cups milk

5 fresh jalapeños, seeded and finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 red bell pepper, finely chopped

6 chives, finely chopped

Canola or other neutral oil for frying

Method

Heat a pan (I used a skillet-wok) over medium heat, and melt the butter. Toss the corn in the butter, and then don't stir until corn starts to brown. Take off the heat.

Mix the eggs, flour, cornmeal, baking powder, lime juice, and milk in a blender or food processor. Stir in corn, jalapeños, garlic, bell pepper, and chives. Let rest for 30 minutes. (No, I don't really know if you have to let it rest. I did. It was delicious. You probably should too.)

Heat a griddle over medium-high heat, and coat with a mix of oil and butter. (The butter tastes good, the oil has a high smoking point. You get the best of both worlds.) Ladle a ladleful of batter onto the griddle and cook, turning once, until golden brown on each side—about 5 minutes total. Repeat until batter is gone. Top with sour cream and salsa (recipe below), and serve with black beans (recipe below).

Salsa

Ingredients

4 medium-sized, fresh tomatoes, diced

2 large jalapeños, minced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 white onion, diced

1 handful cilantro, chopped

1-2 glugs fresh lime juice

salt and pepper

Method

Combine ingredients

Taste for seasoning. Eat.

Black Beans a la Liz

Ingredients

Black beans, cooked or from a can, undrained

Cumin

Coriander

Tumeric

Sumac

Cinnamon

Smoked Paprika

Cayenne and/or red pepper flakes

Salt

Bay leaves

Method

Bring black beans to a simmer in a skillet or sauce pan. Add a large pinch or two of coriander and cumin, small pinches of each of the rest of the spices, and a bay leaf or two. Stir together and simmer for 5-10 minutes. 

Taste for seasoning. Top with salsa (above) and sour cream. Eat.

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Summer Staples: Grain Salad

POSTED BY LIZ

It is officially summer now. There will be no more soups, no more stews, no more cooking at all if possible. It is hot. I don't even want to walk into the kitchen let alone turn on the stove. But all is well because there is grain salad. This is one of those dishes that is so versatile and customizable that it is impossible to write a recipe for it. In essence, you pick a grain (I like to use Israeli couscous, bulgur, or plain old white rice, but you could use anything really), a few vegetables, and a dressing. Cook the grain, dice the vegetables, toss it all with the dressing. Done, finito, eat.

Recipe for the exact salad pictured after jump

Herbed Vegetable Couscous Salad with Feta and Lime

Ingredients

Israeli couscous

1 yellow bell pepper, diced

1 cubanelle pepper, diced

1 cucumber, diced

2 ribs celery, diced

1/4 red onion, diced

1 cup chickpeas, cooked or canned and drained

4oz feta, diced

1/2 bunch cilantro, minced

1/2 bunch basil, minced

olive oil

fresh, unsweetened lime juice

salt

pepper

Method

Cook the couscous according to the package instructions. (Or you can follow my barbaric lead, and treat it like pasta—I usually boil it for about 4 minutes. In my defense, I buy in bulk which means it doesn't come with instructions.) Meanwhile, soak the red onion in cold water for 5 minutes or so to reduce its bite.

Gently mix all of the vegetables, the couscous, the chickpeas, and the feta together in a large bowl.

Put the cilantro and basil in a smaller, separate bowl, and add much more olive oil and lime juice than seems necessary in an approximately 2:1 ratio.

Grind in an overly generous amount of black pepper and add a tiny sprinkle of salt. Whisk with a fork and pour over the salad. Gently fold the dressing into the salad.

Taste for seasoning and adjust the lime/olive oil ratio if necessary. (You can pour straight into the large bowl now that the herbs are mixed in.) Eat.

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Bloody Mary Lou

POSTED BY LIZ

Generally speaking, I don't do fancy cocktails. Sure, I might order one in a restaurant—if someone else is picking up the tab—but at home I don't get more complicated than vodka with cranberry juice. (Organic, unsweetened cranberry juice, of course.) But, sometimes I have to make an exception, and that's exactly what happened when my friend mentioned that he had a bottle of corn whiskey.

"What does that taste like?" I demanded.

"Halfway between rubbing alcohol and cornmeal," he replied. "You won't like it—it tastes like alcohol."

"But there must be something we can mix it with . . . maybe something savory . . . what does corn go with anyway? . . . Tomatoes! We should make bloody marys using corn whiskey instead of vodka!" I thought it was a great idea.

He agreed that it would be a worthy experiment. And it was. In the end, we both felt that not only were the drinks palatable, they might even be better than a traditional bloody mary. The corn flavor melds wonderfully with the other ingredients, which are strong enough to stand up to alcohol.

Recipe after the jump

Bloody Mary Lou

Ingredients

Corn Whiskey (we used the Georgia Moon pictured)

Cholula chipotle hot sauce

Worcestershire sauce (we used The Wizard's as it is the only vegan one I'm aware of)

Lime juice

Pickle brine (optional)

Tomato juice

Salt and pepper

Celery stalks, washed and trimmed

Method

Put a few ice cubes in a pint glass, and pour an inch of whiskey in. Eye the glass and pour in a little more.

Shake a generous amount of hot sauce into the glass. (If you're used to Tobasco then I'm sure you're shaking your head right now, but I promise Cholula is not super spicy, just super delicious). Add about the same amount of worcestershire and lime juice, as well as a splash of the pickle brine.

Top with tomato juice, leaving some room at the top for tinkering. Add a sprinkle of salt and a few grinds of pepper. Mix well.

Adjust seasoning proportions to taste, and garnish with celery stalk. Drink.

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Black Bean and Tomato Soup

POSTED BY LIZ

Every weekend we make a batch of chickpeas and a batch of black beans to keep in the fridge for the week. Last week we did not eat our black beans. I have learned from unfortunate experience that black beans should not be kept much longer than a week, so I decided to use them up today. Normally this would mean it's rice-and-beans night. But not this time! Instead, it is black-bean-and-tomato-soup-with-garnishes night. Behold.

Recipe after the jump

Black Bean and Tomato Soup

Ingredients

28oz can fire roasted tomatoes

3-4 tbsp garlic paste

4 dried chipotles

4-5 cups vegetable stock

1-2 tbsp sumac

2-3 tbsp coriander

1-2 cups black beans, cooked or canned

Garnishes

Toasted corn tortillas

Sour cream

Roasted tomatillo salsa (I like Mark Bittman's recipe)

Method

Put a large soup pot on medium high heat, and add the tomatoes, garlic paste, and chipotles, along with 2 cups of stock. Bring to a boil, and then simmer for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the chipotles are soft.

Puree the tomato chipotle mixture. (You can use a food processor, a stick blender, a regular blender, whatever.)

Return the puree to the soup pot, and bring back to a simmer. Add the sumac and coriander. Add the stock a half-cup at a time until the soup is your desired thickness.

Stir in the black beans, and taste for seasoning. Ladle into bowls, and garnish with half a torilla, a dollop of sour cream, and a drizzle of salsa. Eat.

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Tomato and Spinach Risotto

POSTED BY LIZ

As previously mentioned, our CSA started last weekend. Along with all the garlic, we have a fridge full of kale and spinach. So, to continue my let's-ignore-that-it's-summer cooking trend, I made risotto with spinach and tomato sauce. (The tomato sauce is from a huge batch we made a while ago and froze in one-cup portions.) Normally I'd put some mozzarella and basil in this, but we didn't have any, and I didn't feel like going to the the store. (I am lazy and trying save money. No last-minute deli runs allowed.) Luckily we have a huge block of parmesan in the fridge, and the risotto came out great.

Recipe after the jump

Tomato and Spinach Risotto

Ingredients

Olive oil

2 cups arborio rice

1 cup chunky tomato sauce (look for that recipe coming soon)

6 cups vegetable stock

1 large bunch spinach, ripped into bite size pieces

Whole bunch of parmesan, grated

Method

Bring the stock to a simmer on a back burner of the stove.

Put a large saucepan on high heat (I actually use a wok, but that's pretty unorthodox), and cover the bottom with olive oil.

Add the rice and stir so that all the grains are coated with oil. Stir constantly for 1-2 minutes.

Add the tomato sauce and a ladleful or two of stock. Stir to distribute evenly throughout the rice.

When all of the stock has been absorbed add another ladleful. (Most people will tell you to have to stir the risotto the entire time you're making it. Those people are lying to you. Stir every time you add stock, and then leave the rice alone.)

When the rice is just a touch toothier than you want, add all the spinach. It'll be a panic-inducing tower of green, but it wilts down fast, so just gently fold it into the rice.

Add another ladleful or two of stock, and if you've timed it right, your rice is done. (It should be tender and creamy but still recognizable individual grains.)

Turn off the heat, and fold in the parmesan. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper if needed. Eat.

Notes

Almost all risotto begins with sauteing an onion and then adding the rice. I didn't have an onion or I would have used one. Also, traditionally you'd add some white wine to the rice before the stock. I recommend using red wine instead to go with the tomato sauce. Again, I didn't have any on hand when I made it, but you should definitely add some if you have it.

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Tofu and Ramen

POSTED BY LIZ

This is one of my all time favorite dishes and one of the absolute simplest things I make. It's not even really a dish, it's a snack. A yummy, wholly inelegant snack. It's not especially visually appealing—look at that beige on beige on beige! But it is spicy, salty, sour, and umami-y. And addictive.

The important part of this dish is the sauce. Mix together toasted sesame oil, rice vinegar, chile garlic paste, and soy sauce. (I use approximately 3:2:1:1 proportions, but the best thing to do is to play around until it tastes good to you.) You can add some mirin for a sweet note as well. Now this would work as a stir fry sauce or as a soup base or any number of other lovely things. But for me? I just fry some tofu in a sauce pot, cook some ramen in the same pot, toss it all together, and call it a day.

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Garlic Scape Pesto

POSTED BY LIZ

Our CSA finally started up on Saturday, and we got mountains of fresh garlic. With the scapes attached. So what could I do but make garlic scape pesto? (And this garlic paste which has been going into everything.)

I'm not even going to try to put the pesto into recipe format. This what you do: take a bunch of garlic scapes, puree them with some olive oil, a pinch of salt and pepper, and a handful of nuts (I used pecans). Adjust the proportions until you like both the taste and texture. Eat it with a spoon, use it as pasta sauce, or simply add a spoonful anywhere you'd normally put a garlic clove.

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Spicy Chickpea Stew with Israeli Couscous

POSTED BY LIZ

I intended to make this chickpea, fennel, and chard recipe from the NY Times for dinner but then realized I had essentially none of the ingredients except for the chickpeas. I also remembered that I'm allergic to recipes and invariably stray from them. So instead, I used the flavors from that recipe as a jumping off point and made a spicy chickpea stew with kale, israeli couscous, and potato, and flavored it with harissa, garlic paste, cumin, coriander, and bay leaves. I ended up with totally delicious stew that was quite unsuitable for our summer weather. I am happily eating it anyway.

Recipe after the jump

Spicy Chickpea Stew with Israeli Couscous

Ingredients

Olive oil

2-3 tbsp harissa

3-4 tbsp garlic paste

1-2 tbsp cumin

1-2 tbsp coriander

4-6 cups vegetable stock

1-2 cups of chickpeas, cooked or canned

2-3 bay leaves

2-3 red potatoes, diced

1 big bunch of kale, de-stemmed and ripped into bite size pieces

2-3 handfuls israeli couscous

2-3 pinches of salt

2-3 tablespoons of lime juice

Method

Heat olive oil in a large soup pot. Add harissa, garlic paste, cumin, and coriander, and stir for a minute or two until fragrant. Add stock and chickpeas. (If using dried chickpeas, you can cook them in the stock now instead of beforehand.)

Bring to a simmer, then add potatoes. Simmer for 5-10 minutes, then add the kale.

Curse because the kale is billowing over the pot and you're not sure you have enough liquid in it.

Relax as kale wilts down and begins to fit into pot. Admire the pretty color that it turns as it cooks.

Add couscous and panic about amount of liquid again. Remember that there's a simple solution to this problem, and add more water and/or vegetable stock if necessary. Bring stew back to a simmer if it has stopped.

Taste the couscous for doneness starting about 3 minutes after you throw it in. Add lime juice and taste stew for seasoning. Adjust seasonings as necessary. Eat.